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Bandanarama

First Reserve Ride

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On my second jump yesterday, I did a hop n' pop from 13k which has been a regular routine for me lately. That was jump # 96. I've been taking it easy on a recovering shoulder and having fun practicing canopy skills. Anyway, I did a 5 second delay and reached up to grab my risers and watch my canopy open. As soon as I grabbed my risers, I noticed line twists without the chute being fully deployed just yet. It was still sniveling and slowly filling up with air.

My canopy opened with some tight twists towards the top of the suspension lines and immediately dropped its nose and went into aggressive turns. In the meantime I was trying to pull my risers apart and keep it from twisting up anymore. I succeeding in preventing anymore line twists but since my canopy was in an agressive turn already with the existing line twists, I wasn't having much luck untwisting by pulling apart the risers and trying to kick while I was being spun around.

I was up really high and was well aware of this and elected to mess with my malfunction for I believe 8- 10ish strong spins. At which time, I figured I would only continue to spin and bleed altitude without much luck of battling my malfunction.

I decided I was going to cutaway and practice what I had been taught. So, I looked down to see my EM handles and due to my t-shirt being full of air couldn't get a visual on both handles simultaneously. So as I continued to enjoy my carnival ride, I calmly and simply reached for both handles with one in each hand.

Using my right hand, I first pulled my cutaway handle and ensured my cables had completely cleared which was evident as my canopy floated away. I free fell for another 2-4 seconds as I gained stability quickly. Then using my left hand simply pulled my reserve which opened gently and perfectly above me.

I was under my reserve canopy at 8500 ft AGL if my recollection was accurate which for the most part I believe was now having time to digest the event. So I calculate 500 feet for my 5 second delay plus a normal 1000 foot snivel. I would say it was about 1500 feet before I decided I should cutaway. I would guess it took another 500 feet transitioning from a mental change in EPs from wanting to use 2 hands on my cutaway handle to a single hand on each handle. Throw in another 500 feet for gaining stability and pulling my reserve handle. Finally, it seemed like about 500 feet for my reserve to open up nicely and quickly compared to my main canopy opening history.

Oddly, I wasn't as frayed as I thought I would be during such an event. I looked at my altimeter and did a quick canopy controllability check and then located my reserve pc and main canopy floating near by. I turned towards my reserve pc to have a closer look since at first I wasn't quite sure what it was. It kind of looked like a tandem drogue chute. I was right next to it floating in deep brakes trying to completely assess my situation. I had recollected incidents where people had died due to grabbing such items and my canopy had floated above my reserve to where I couldn't see it for a second.

So, I gently turned away from them and was looking out for planes and checking my location. At that point, I decided I was going to fly to the student east field but do so slowly. I kept an eye on my canopy and reserve pc for quite some time as I drifed with the wind further westerly while trying to be conscious of my environment and altitude. I was facing easterly as the distance increased between me and my gear. I thought I saw roughly where my gear must have landed but I would learn how parallax views are very deceiving.

I think I was still at 5000 feet when my gear appeared to land off in the distance. At that point, I practiced some flares and played around a bit under canopy. I ended up coming in for a nice landing pattern as all my fellow dive buddies awaited on the ground knowing something must have happened due to seeing a white canopy above me. In fact, one of our camera guys happened to be there and had his helmet in his hand pointing at me as I was on final approach.

Seeing this, I flew right up next to him to geek the camera and get close to the bus that transports us back to the airport a few miles away. I landed nice and smoothly on both feet and jogged 10 feet over to him with my canopy above head and let out a cheers with 2 thumbs up. We had a short interview which turned into an entertaining debriefing.

To make a long story slightly shorter.... I found my reserve pc and spent about 3 hours in an aweful field with weeds as tall as myself and stickers, etc., only to come up short finding my canopy. The only reason I even searched what I still feel is the correct field was due to a farming community member reporting the incident to Skydive Snohomish and calling 911. He initially thought someone was under canopy and must have been injured out in this large field.

Summarizing, it was a good learning experience. I think I'm switching to a 2-handed EP with 1 hand on each handle. I'll start practicing that one on the ground from here on out. I think my malfunction was caused by leaving too short of a distance between my suspension line stows and my d-bag. I should have also put in my d-bag cleaner and paid more attention. I feel that was the culprit and caused my d-bag to spin up the lines before my canopy even had a chance to fully inflate.

If it happened to me again with plenty of altitude to spare, I would follow my canopy leaving myself 4-5000 feet of altitude to pick a safe landing. I could have even made it back to the student east field I believe. I'm definitely going to pay more attention to my packing and have a packer/rigger review my suspension line stow and d-bag placement in my container.

As of one day later, I'm still missing my Safire 2 189 and am contemplating taking a break from skydiving for a while. The reserve ride was nothing and I have no mental scarring. It was a rather frightless experience. It's the loss of my $1500 baby that hurts the most. I've just spent a lot of money recently on other stuff and need to let my bank account fatten up a bit. Short of being extremely lucky and someone finding my baby in the next few days, I think I'm going to put off skydiving for the remainder of the year.

It's the old good luck/bad luck story that happened during the peak of the season in the northwest. I may be looking to buy another Safire 2 or Pilot during Christmas time if Aerodyne has another great sale like last year.

Tomorrow I'll head to the DZ and grab what remains of my rig and drop off my rigger a nice bottle of booze. Thanks Todd!!! I'll probably leave some extra cash for the packer that I pre-paid for some pack jobs and have them buy their preference of beer. It's looking like another break for me...

:(:(:(

Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Glad you got to the ground safely and I do hope we find that canopy one day soon. I'd hate to see you have to take a break so soon after getting back into things.

Welcome to the club. ;) What a way to celebrate your sky-birthday, eh?
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Yes, it wasn't the celebration I had in mind! Of course, it could have been a lot worse and I'm trying to remain optimistic. However, it still royally sucks losing my canopy!!! It kind of makes me wish I was at one of those desert or flat, treeless dropzones where you can see for miles and not have to traverse nasty fields with overgrown vegetation. It would have been really nice to just see it off in the distance and collect it real easy. C'est la vie...

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Hey Eric I posted on Sky Sno's website too...

I'd help but I'm over an hour away and terribly sick at the moment. :(

One thing you may consider though buddy is not that there was fear during the cutaway, I had none during mine either, it was kind of surreal...but you may need to get one more jump in ASAP. You don't want to end on a bad note.

The only 'fear' I had was my first jump after the chop.

It's true in many things...skydiving, horseback riding, baseball...just about any type of sport. Any coach will tell ya 'Don't end on a bad note.' It's a psychological thing.

Anyhow, I'm a total hypocrite though. My last jump sucked ass. I shoulda got one more in there before deciding to hang it up. :P

If you owe Higley a bottle, don't buy Talisker. It's pricey as hell and he definitely ain't worth it. :ph34r:

(J/K!! I know Todd doesn't read this shit anyhow ;))
~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, ACME!

To me, it was a scarier thought than reality. It reminded me of when I was a new student and was paranoid about all line twists. Then I had my first line twists and realized they weren't that bad. I had successfully recovered from several line twists throughout my jumping history. NOTE: There was no excessive line twist history. Every blue moon I would have one and I got out of it without any hitches.

This time around was different from the past where I could attribute other issues such as body position as the culprit. I was very high and confident my reserve would play its part and I had ample time to take action. I recollected a few tales of high altitude canopy cutaways and the horrors of tracking them down. That was the only fear or anxiety that I experienced.

I have no reservations about jumping from a perfectly good airplane in the future.

:)Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Damn that's too bad... But, hey, your life is more important than a $1500 cutaway!

I had spinning linetwists once (escaped it just fine), although at a much lower altitude of 4000 feet pull, open at ~3000, and fixed by 2500. The first and only time I considered cutaway. (so far. Knock on wood)

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Call the folks at the DZ and ask them if they'll take a look for your canopy for the next week or so. It might be a little easier to spot from the air. It's not going to be worth much after a week, even if you do find it. Good job on the EPs, but it sucks you lost your main. Try and remember if your main was dropping faster than your freebag, since you got to watch them for a while, maybe it will give you a better idea where to look. If you know anybody up there with an ultralight or a powered parachute, I bet they could find it for you in an hour or less. Just a thought. Good luck and thanks for the story.

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Glad you're ok, it was a good decision to stay away from that cutaway main. Hope you can find it. If there is a 182 handy, get a couple friends for more pairs of eyes and rent it for a half-hour sight-seeing trip. ;)

.02

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

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Stories like this make me want to perfect the "lost main homing beacon". I figure if they can track animals from a thing on their collar, why not sew something to the bottom inside of the deployment bag that transmits a signal. I found one transmitter designed to be glued onto turtles, sounds small enough to put in a pouch in the d-bag, huh...

A friend of mine lost his main in a wide open field. I told him instead of looking out the plane window for it, he should be looking on e-bay for it, because things just don't disappear that quickly.

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I think my malfunction was caused by leaving too short of a distance between my suspension line stows and my d-bag. I should have also put in my d-bag cleaner and paid more attention. I feel that was the culprit and caused my d-bag to spin up the lines before my canopy even had a chance to fully inflate.


Can you elaborate on the above? Do you mean too short of a distance between your last stow and the risers?
Also, what do you mean by "put in your D-Bag cleaner"?
Good job though, and great narration skills.

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

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Thanks for the feedback everyone. I plan on heading to the DZ tomorrow to take a hop n' pop in the general vicinity of my reserve pc discovery location. While on the ride, I'll have at least another person or two on the load looking out below for any lost canopy.

You are correct with your interpretation. In hind sight, I feel I left too short of a distance between my last stow and the risers. I was also distracted by a new load request (conversation) to get on while placing my d-bag in the container. I hastily plopped it in the container and felt like the little but excess lines right past the risers should have been organized better before resting the d-bag on top and closing the container.

I believe this caused my d-bag to spin as it went to full line stretch in the opening sequence. I felt like the timing of my 5 second delay and body position were fine especially considering how many hop n' pops I had done from 13000 ft. in recent history.

People had been joking that I was afraid to free fall anymore... ;) Since I had been doing jumps with other people in attempt to enjoy some mild CRW-like canopy flight, my RSL was disconnected. Thus, when I cutaway, I truly detached from my main canopy and had to pull my reserve handle.

Anyway, as annoying as it has been to deal with the loss of my canopy, I thought I would try to share a learning experience for my fellow skydivers. It's probably not new information for the majority of people out there but perhaps a few people learn a tidbit here or there...

:)
Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Hey Eric the post above is actually something to think about...even though I doubt anyone in Snoho would be looking to sell a cutaway main on E-bay...still, you never know who's hands it might end up in.

Do you have a picture of your main? I can't picture it in my head. Blue and gold, yes? Still, a pic might help...also, other people can help you keep an eye on E-bay & other gear selling ads, just in case. Dz.commers have tracked down stolen gear before. :)
Most likely, your baby is hanging out in a field somewhere just waiting for ya, but it can't hurt to post a pic.
~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

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I don't have a picture handy but I have attached a design image. Here are some further details:

Icarus Safire 2 189

DOM: 10/2004
SN # 94214622

It's gold, navy blue and white in color. I think it's one of the best looking canopies at Skydive Snohomish and it is missed...

:(:(:(
Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Hmmm, the file attachment doesn't seem to work. I clicked on the Browse button and selected the jpeg file (34KB) and clicked on Upload Attachment. No luck...

Oh well, my verbal description is pretty good I think. I honestly don't think it would end up on EBay but one never knows these days...

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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It's gold, navy blue and white in color. I think it's one of the best looking canopies at Skydive Snohomish and it is missed...



If you see a canopy that looks like an extra-large Cub Scout uniform, that's Eric's.:D

Seriously, it is a nice canopy and I do hope it turns up on your recon mission today.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Congratulations on a job well done, especially as you encountered some unforseen problems with your cutaway.

I had to back up and reassure myself that you'd jumped from some altitude though, as you described your cutaway sequence. I could almost hear a clock ticking as you went through describing 8-10 spins, finding that your T-shirt obstructed your handles, and then falling away to regain stability.

Obviously the fact that you hopped and popped from 13 grand puts a very different complexion on the situation, i.e a lot more time to deal with your problem. And I want to congratulate you for doing your EPs. It's great to be alive, especially with the newfound experience of knowing that cutaways and reserves actually work. So I'm not criticizing you, but want to point out a few things that might have contributed to a horrific ending (like maybe even your "death") if this had occurred at a more usual opening altitude.

As high as you were, taking the 8-10 spins is no biggy, as long as you don't feel yourself getting disoriented, dizzy, or like you're going to black out. But a spinning canopy can black you out. The centrifugal force of a spin will drain the blood right out of your brain, so that needs immediate attention. And by the way, I'm REALLY sorry you lost your canopy, that's a real drag about high altitude cutaways.

Your t-shirt would be the next item on the agenda. Lots of people jump in t-shirts, sweatpants, and all kinds of casual clothes. But you've had a direct experience now where your t-shirt interfered with your ability to reach your handles. At 8500+ ft that's not such a problem, below 3 grand it's a BIG one.

And then you chose to get stable again before pulling your reserve. Again, at 8500+ ft that's not a biggie, "but down in the valley" you could easily spend the rest of your life trying to get stable. It goes without saying that you're not using a RSL, otherwise you'd have been open almost instantly after your cutaway. I'm a believer in RSLs and use one myself. I don't believe in telling people what to do, but in your place with under 100 jumps, do you really think it's wise to be jumping without one ? Please give that some serious thought.

You didn't mention whether you use an AAD or not, but don't forget that cutting away from a spinner can fool an AAD - because you must reaccelerate to a fast enough speed to "scare" your AAD into firing. And if you're AAD doesn't get scared 'til below 200 ft it's not going to be much help.

The reason I'm so concerned is that your incident, with its happy ending sounds eerily close to the two fatal incident reports out Rantoul in the last two weeks - as well as the only fatality at the 2003 WFFC. All three were cutaways from spinners, no RSL, victim tried to regain stability before pulling their reserve, and in at least two of the cases the Cypres fired too low to do any good. You had a lot of extra grace on this one because you opened so high and I'm not so sure we wouldn't be reading something about "witnesses said he appeared to be trying to get stable before impact" if you'd been on a normal freefall load.

So again, this is not to rant at you. I'm glad you kept your head and did your EPs. You're landing alive and well is THE happy ending, though I'm so sorry about you losing your canopy. But please start thinking about what you can do differetly next time; everything from how long you take to r4each a decision, to the clothes you're wearing, to maybe hooking up a RSL to your rig. Because we ALL want you to live a long time and to enjoy this sport as an old man.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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Thanks for bringing up valid concerns Tom.

I will address each one.

1.) I have cranked down my toggles before for 10ish aggressive turns intentionally at both high and low altitudes in the past. I didn't feel any concerning physiological symptoms during the event and knew I was up really high. I was aware I was taking my time while addressing the issue. I would have acted sooner if I was at lower altitude or felt it was extremely aggressive but this is something for myself and everyone else to be aware of, definitely...

2.) Wearing a t-shirt only "obstructed my view" of seeing both handles simultaneously. It never affected my ability to reach my handles in this case. Since I couldn't "see both handles simultaneously", I elected to place each hand on a handle simultaneously and transition to a slightly different EP.

Loose fitting clothing and how a rig fits oneself is an important issue to discuss and that's why I added it to my description. In my case, my t-shirt was tucked in my jeans. Additionally, I can see this as being an issue with many free fly jumpsuits. Thus, I reached a conclusion to change my EPs to reflect my real world experience. I'm not advocating this for anyone else but sharing my deductive reasoning. One hand on each handle worked great for me and I feel more comfortable with it.

Analyze the pros and cons of either EP and discuss them with an instructor or someone with lots of experience (thousands of jumps). If you elect to make any changes to ones EPs, practice them routinely and regularly on the ground and in a harness.

3.) I had my RSL disconnected only because I was doing hop n' pops from high altitude and practicing CRW-like maneuvers with fellow skydivers in recent history. I always connect my RSL for true free-falls. I was altitude aware and elected to free fall for just a few seconds before pulling my reserve handle. Once again, I was well aware of my altitude and knew it was safe. I would not have delayed had I been at low altitude and most likely my RSL would have been connected to begin with if I was at low altitude from a free fall.

4.) I have a Cypres 2 and have turned it on every jump.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback! All of this is a great learning experience and I plan on skydiving till I can't do it anymore which I hope is when I'm a very old man.

:)Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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2.) Wearing a t-shirt only "obstructed my view" of seeing both handles simultaneously. It never affected my ability to reach my handles in this case. Since I couldn't "see both handles simultaneously", I elected to place each hand on a handle simultaneously and transition to a slightly different EP


On a tangent: I did a jump wearing a T-shirt once, and after opening, realized my T-shirt (which I hadn't tucked properly) and come up over my handles. I fixed the problem on my next jump (by carefully tucking the T-Shirt into the pants and under the leg straps). Good thing, as the jump resulted in a cutaway.
Be careful out there...

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

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Hey Eric, I guess that your canopy hasn't been found. Don't give up, it may turn up yet. Also don't assume that it is trashed after a week outside, its a new canopy and this aint Arizona.. When you get it back a rigger inspection and an Icarus inspection will be in order though. As for giving up jumping for the year I bet you can find a loaner or a cheap used rag to keep you in the air. You can learn lots about canopy flight even on other canopies. There's also freefall in case you forgot. :P
Sometimes you eat the bear..............

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Hi Paul,

According to Gui, some farmer found it and has it in cool storage. I have no clue what kind of cool storage or if I'll ever see my canopy again. I think it is the same person that stopped by the LZ at the time of the event. They just kind of mentioned an approximate area of where my canopy was but I never found it that day.

I'm going to do some searching tomorrow for some farmer named "Pheete" or something like that... He drives a white Ford F150 class truck. At least that's what I recollect regarding his truck. Gui was the one who sent me the farmer's name in email.

So, there's still hope... I ended up taking a helicopter out there ($150 for 30 minutes) on Tuesday to look for it but came up short. I think the farmer must have gotten it on Monday which is good and bad. I just don't understand why he hasn't called the DZ. It's not like the small community of Snohomish doesn't know about Harvey Airfield or Skydive Snohomish. I also offered a reward of $100 to any fellow skydiver who found it.

So, it's not like I haven't made any effort. I took a half day off work, spent about a total of 6 hours in hellish fields and spent a nice chunk of change on my helicopter ride. This is becoming one expensive jump but if I get my canopy back, I'll be happy. I just hope it's in good shape and this farmer pipes up soon. Doesn't he want to collect any dough? Maybe he's holding out for more $$$...

The saga continues...

:S:S:S
Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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NOTE Up Front: A little of this describes recovering my canopy... The rest is a bunch of thank you(s)!

Hey Paul,

Good news, I tracked down my canopy! It took walking door to door out in the middle of farm land. In fact, I ended up finding the guy that had my canopy on his day off at the edge of a river fishing. He had stored my canopy on the farm premises. I gave him all that I had in my wallet at that time, $80, plus a bottle of wine. So, I shelled out another $100ish towards a good cause.

It turns out he grabbed my canopy almost immediately when it touched ground. Unfortunately, he never called Harvey Airfield to report anything. It was kind of shady with regards to that but I'm just happy to have my beautiful Safire 2 back in perfect condition. I would happily pay a reward in another such circumstance but would hope the person would contact the airfield or DZ. I didn't lose a single piece of equipment also. So, I'll be back in the air soon.

I also just heard today also from Jillian the names of you guys that actually went out to that dreadful field where I found my reserve pc and free bag. I knew from Lidia that some people had gone out there but wasn't sure who... I feel really bad that you guys experienced the misery of that field for a bit too especially since I had searched that area for quite some time. When I left, I figured it was virtually an impossible task for any size group of people on the ground to find it especially since someone had grabbed it right away (hind sight). If it was in that field, an air search was the way to go.

In any event, I wanted to thank all of you very much! At the end of the day when you guys had gone out there, I had already left rather upset after spending quite some time only to come up short. So, I had no clue who all went out there.

Thanks Elaine, Jillian, Lidia, Linny, Paul and Tyson!!! I just listed names alphabetically :)
Thanks to everyone else who wished me good luck and thanks Todd for helping my untwist all those crazy lines! I gifted Todd, my rigger, with a bottle of Absolut Vodka. I also brought my case of beer to the DZ today (1st Reserve Ride dues) and there's still a 12 pack left. For those of you who didn't get to enjoy a cold one, I owe ya. I'll bring some goodies periodically and will be there for ya if misfortune pays you a visit as well.

If I left anyone out, feel free to slap me around a bit!

:):)Eric

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Very cool that you recovered the canopy Eric. Especially getting it back from the guy who was, um, storing it for you. I'd be happy to help drink up some of that beer, I hope there's some left after night jumps tonight. (think wingsuit night flock).
Sometimes you eat the bear..............

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